


Bath Time

by somsnosa



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Bathing, Body Dysphoria, Bonding, Bull's Chargers, Character Study, Drabble, Fluff, Other, RIP, Team Bonding, Trans Male Character, krem fic, more krem fics pls, this fic is a lot shorter than i thought it was???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 09:22:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6148906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somsnosa/pseuds/somsnosa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Krem is hesitant to bathe with his fellow Chargers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bath Time

Krem’s binder is an armored vest, securing him, keeping him safe from the wandering eyes of everyone he’s ever known – yet, here they are; here he is, taking himself apart, ready to display the skin under his skin to his fellow Chargers for the first time.

He thinks he’s ready for this moment.  The moment of reveal.  The moment of no longer bathing alone and wasting valuable time they could have spent on the road, at least… But Maker, is he terrified.

They’d just been on the road for about a week, sleeping on dirty tavern floors and squatting in abandoned shacks, looking and looking for a good, clean water source.  They are, after all, beginning to stink – a six-day trek in the hot Ferelden sun will do that to you.

Still, stench or no, Krem’s beginning to think he’d rather face another walking corpse in his bath alone than share the time with his team. His family.

No.  He can do this.  He can trust them.  And if he can’t – they all have their weapons, but he’s the best with his, even counting Bull.  He can carve his way far from the people he loves (even Bull!) easily enough.

He forces his mind away from such pessimistic thoughts, however.  _Who knows,_ he thinks instead, _maybe… maybe they’ll all have gone blind._

As if he would be so lucky.

 ~

He’s hiding.  He has been for some time now – pressed stealthily against the wilds; the tree; the grass and dirt beneath him.  Completely bare, he’s hiding from his fellow Chargers and their Iron Bull.  He’s been trying to eavesdrop.  It actually isn’t going very well, if he’s being honest – but, he needs to know.  His shaking hands and beating heart need to know.

He’s been waiting for Too Long when finally – “Wasn’t Krem supposed to be bathing with us?”

“So was the Bull.  They’re probably talking somewhere, the chief giving Krem a pep talk or whatever.”

“A pep talk?  What for?”

“Well, we all know about Krem.  Looks more like Skinner over there than Grim or me, right?”

There’s a moment of silence, no sound other than the gentle splashing of water as the Chargers – er, most of them – bathe.

“And,” Dalish asks, making a sound that Krem thinks is her spitting out a stream of water.  “Even though we’ve known him this long, he’s still shy?”

“Well I’d imagine so.”

More silence and then Skinner says, “We’ll have to make him feel welcome then.”

Krem feels… hopeful.  His team may not have gone blind, but they also haven’t suddenly stopped loving him either.  Krem feels… ready.

Krem is ready.

 ~

So far, Krem thinks it’s going very well. The Chargers are getting very clean – sort of.

A war cry of impressive volume rips through the air around them, followed by the biggest, loudest, wettest splash Krem has ever experienced.  Beside him, the Iron Bull, naked as the day he was born, sputters, laughing.  Krem wipes water from his lashes quickly, coughing too.

Soon after Krem had joined his team – accompanied by a series of hoots and hollers that had had him blushing – a splash fight had broken out.  This was mostly due to Krem’s response to the wolf-whistles he’d received, though, if you ask him, he’ll swear Rocky started it.

No longer shy, Krem laughs, yelling out a battle cry of, “ _No retreat!”_ before continuing to fight for his honor in the newly proclaimed Water War.

In the end, when everyone is clean and pruny, it’s unanimous.  The Chargers had been victorious once more.

**Author's Note:**

> the chargers are the best dragon age characters and they were only there for like... two seconds. your move, bioware. -bear


End file.
